Integrating mitigation and adaptation in climate and land use policies in Indonesia: a policy document analysis

Most of the climate policy integration literature focuses on mainstreaming mitigation OR adaptation into sectoral policies. Such approaches, however, tend to ignore possible interactions between climate change adaptation and mitigation, which are particularly important in the land use sector. This paper investigates climate policy integration and coherence in the forest and agricultural sectors in Indonesia. It assesses the extent to which climate change policies display internal ‘climate change policy coherence’ between climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives, and ‘external policy coherence’ between climate change and non-climate change objectives of land use policies. The results indicate a shift since 2014 from a predominantly vertical to a more fragmented form of horizontal policy integration. Insufficient political action, resources and knowledge on vulnerability and adaptation options in forestry and agriculture and limited attention to reconcile mitigation and development objectives in land use sector are the main obstacles to internal and external policy integration. A present, for the most part climate change efforts still need to translate into revised sectoral policies. In a fragmented and predominantly horizontal policy architecture the willingness of sectoral ministries to recognize the importance of climate change objectives and of synergies between mitigation and adaptation will be crucial to moved toward a more effective climate policy integration